Elephant (2003 film)
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| Elephant | |
|---|---|
 Elephant movie poster | |
| Directed by | Gus Van Sant |
| Written by | Gus Van Sant |
| Produced by | Dany Wolf |
| Starring | John Robinson Alex Frost Eric Deulen Elias McConnell |
| Distributed by | HBO Films, Fine Line Features |
Release dates |  18 May, 2003 (premiere at Cannes) October 24 2003 (limited) 24 January, 2004 30 January, 2004 |
Running time | 81 min. |
| Country | USA  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000,000 (estimated) |
Elephant is a 2003 American film written and directed by Gus Van Sant. It is set on the day of a massive school shooting. Most of the film takes place about five minutes before the shooting occurs, following several characters as they live out their school lives, unaware of what is about to unfold. The film stars mostly new or non-professional actors, including John Robinson, Alex Frost and Eric Deulen.
This is the second movie in Gus Van Sant's Death Trilogy - the first is Gerry and the third Last Days; all three are based on actual events. Elephant takes place in the fictional Watt High School, in Portland, Oregon, and chronicles the events surrounding a fictional school shooting, based in part on the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre. The end of the film stresses the "similarities to actual events are purely coincidental" disclaimer.
The film was generally acclaimed by critics, and received the prestigous 2004 Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes. As the first high-profile movie to address high school shootings since Columbine, the film was controversial for its subject matter and possible influence on teenaged copy-cats. Elephant received an R rating from the MPAA.
Story
Characters
- Alex - Harassed by jocks, accomplished but frustrated pianist and sketch artist. His advice to Eric: "Have fun".
- Eric - Slacker, Alex's best friend, and the other killer.
- John McFarland - Managing his alcoholic father, he has trouble at school.
- Mr. McFarland - John's father, who is an alcoholic.
- Mr. Luce - Principal of the school.
- Elias - Photography student building his portfolio with portraits of other students.
- Nathan and Carrie - Popular lifeguard and American football player and his girlfriend.
- Michelle - A nerdy girl ashamed of her body, the film follows her through the locker room and into the library where she assists.
- Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole - Three bulimic "teenyboppers" who talk incessantly, gripe about parents, and squabble with one another.
- Acadia - John McFarland's friend and member of the Gay-Straight Alliance.
- Benny - Kind and fearless black student who rescues Acadia by helping her jump out of a window, and who attempts to stop Eric.
- Noelle - A popular girl known for her singing. She is in the cafeteria and then again in the bathroom with the three bulimics. It is unknown whether she dies or not.
Synopsis
The film opens with Mr. McFarland (Timothy Bottoms) driving erratically down a residential street with his son John (John Robinson) in the passenger seat. It becomes apparent that Mr. McFarland is intoxicated as John instructs him to pull over and let him drive. They arrive at John's high school, where he refuses to give his father the car keys and ends up leaving them in the school office for his brother to collect.
The camera follows other students as they walk down the hallways, talk to friends and go to class. Many characters are shown in long tracking shots that do not turn away. Alex (Alex Frost) and Eric (Eric Deulen) are shown being constantly picked on at school by the jocks, several of whom throw spitballs at Alex during science class. Later, Alex and Eric are shown at home ordering weapons from a website. An assault rifle arrives in the mail the following day. Alarmingly, the delivery man asks no questions as he hands Alex the package and even says "No school today, huh?" The two are later shown formulating an attack plan. The next day, Alex and Eric kiss in the shower before making their way to the school in silence.
After arriving at school, Alex and Eric encounter John outside and warn him to run away. The two boys then enter the school and after their plans to blow up parts of the school with a propane bombs fail, begin shooting students indiscriminately. Elias photographs them entering the library where they open fire, shooting Elias, Michelle and several others. The gunfire causes these who had initially believed that the guns were a part of an elaborate joke to flee the school in panic. The two boys separate, continuing their killing spree. Alex enters the bathroom where Brittany, Jordan, and Nicole are, presumably killing all three. Benny confronts Eric but is shot from TEC-9. Mr. Luce pleads to Eric to spare his life, and Eric initially agrees to let him go, but guns him down seconds later.
The two boys meet in the cafeteria, where Alex fatally shoots Eric and enters the kitchen. The film ends without resolution, showing Alex discovering a former bully and his girlfriend hiding in a freezer trying to decide whom to kill first. Template:Endspoiler
Production
The film began as a television film that Van Sant had intended to make about the Columbine High School massacre; eventually, the idea of a factual account was dropped, but the film still shows its television roots by being shot in a 1.33 aspect ratio rather than the traditional widescreen cinematic ratio.
The script was "written" to its final form during shooting, with cast members improvising freely and collaborating in the direction of scenes. The result is described by reviewers as "poetic" and "dreamlike", and by Van Sant himself as a rejection of conventional narrative, building on what he learned from work on Gerry.[citation needed] In the scene in Alex's bedroom where Alex plays a Beethoven sonata on his piano while Eric is playing a first person shooter game on Alex's laptop computer, the characters that appear in the game has a very close similarity to the protagonists from Gerry. Futhermore, there is also a scoring system in the corner of the computer screen that reads "GERRY-COUNT".
JT LeRoy is credited as an associate producer for the film, even though no such person exists. LeRoy was, ostensibly, an abused teenager who wrote several novels based on his life, but was in fact the fictional creation of a writer, Laura Albert. Albert did not publicly acknowledge that LeRoy wasn't a real person until The New York Times uncovered her hoax.
Cast
The teen actors were chosen for the parts based on interviews and their ability to improvise before the camera. Some of the characters were developed from details selected from the interviews. Many of the main characters' names are in fact the same as their performers. Some of the students' activities shown in the movie (aside from the shootings) are done by the real cast as well, with Elias being an actual photographer and Alex actually playing the piano during his scenes (as well as incidental music elsewhere). The actors were all real students who had to take time off of school to film; during breaks and retakes, they could be caught catching up on their homework.
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Alex Frost | Alex |
| Eric Deulen | Eric |
| John Robinson | John McFarland |
| Elias McConnell | Elias |
| Jordan Taylor | Jordan |
| Carrie Finklea | Carrie |
| Nicole George | Nicole |
| Brittany Mountain | Brittany |
| Chantelle Chriestenson | Noelle |
| Alicia Miles | Acadia |
| Kristen Hicks | Michelle |
| Bennie Dixon | Benny |
| Nathan Tyson | Nathan |
The extras were given little instruction and were often simply told to behave as they would if it was real. Many times, they were simply told to run, walk, talk, go to class, eat lunch, or watch. In the cafeteria scene, the food was prepared in advance and left at tables for an extended period of time. When cast members appeared, they were simply told to find a spot and pretend to eat the cold, smelly food. The part of the film that shows one of the attackers in the cafeteria, hearing screaming in his head, was not shot that way. During filming, the attacker rubbed his forehead, screamed for everyone to shut up, and then received jeers from the extras. Because the timing was not working correctly, the format was changed.
Title
The title is a tribute to the 1989 BBC film of the same name, directed by Alan Clarke, which reflects on sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.[citation needed] Like Clarke, Van Sant portrays violence as something unfathomable, not unlike many other disturbing things in the lives of teenagers, which invite convenient explanations but ultimately frustrate analysis.
Van Sant has also offered other reasons for the title.[citation needed] It is an allusion to the idiom "an elephant in the room", which refers to a large problem that no one talks about but everyone must find their way around as they go about their daily lives. A drawing of an elephant can be seen in Alex's room, while he plays the piano. It also invokes the Indian parable about the blind wise men who, unable to grasp the whole, interpret the elephant only in terms of the part they can comprehend: "An elephant is a tree," said the blind man who grasped the leg; "An elephant is a snake," said the one who touched the trunk; etc.
Motifs
- Nature - Nature is shown frequently in the hour leading up to the shooting. This begins with the opening scene of John's father driving, where the audience watched from a birds-eye point of view, between the trees on each side which are shedding their maple leaves.
- Yellow - The colour yellow is shown in a subtle manner throughout the film. Examples include John's shirt and Benny's jersey.
- Depersonalisation - The film follows each character through their day, which are uneventful, much like a real school day. A couple spend time together, a girl works at the library, a boy takes photographs for his work. This is then later shattered as Alex and Eric open fire, and several of these characters are killed quickly and coldly, in a style different to the rest of the film.
North American premiere and release
Elephant premiered in North America at a benefit for the Outside In youth shelter in Portland, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, October 4, 2003, with several teenagers who appeared in the film in attendance.
The film was released for incremental distribution by HBO, in 100 theaters in the United States, beginning October 24, 2003. English language release on DVD and VHS began on May 4, 2004.
Controversies
Prior to its distribution, the film generated minor controversy and divided reviews following the Cannes debut, particularly in the gay community.[citation needed] In the movie the two male killers kiss one another in the shower before they dispassionately commence their Columbine-like frenzy.
Although it was made afterward, Elephant's release coincided with that of the lower budget Zero Day. Coincidentally, the directors of both films received degrees in film from the Rhode Island School of Design.
See also
- Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters on whom characters Alex and Eric are based
- Red Lake High School Massacre, for which Elephant briefly received blame in 2005
- Zero Day, another 2003 film inspired by the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre
- Heart of America (film), a movie which uses both similar plot and similar filming techniques
External links
- Official site
- Elephant at IMDb
- Film criticism article on Elephant's politics Alternate Takes